FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Kristina MacKenzie
651.789.4410 | [email protected]
SAINT PAUL, MN — September 30, 2025 – Schubert Club announced today that Artistic & Executive Director Barry Kempton will step down on June 30, 2026, marking the end of a nearly 15-year tenure that has grown and transformed one of Minnesota’s oldest and most cherished arts organizations.
Kempton is widely recognized for his collaborative approach; partnerships with artists and organizations locally, nationally, and internationally; his discerning ear for quality and emerging musicianship; and his dedication to music education.
Kempton has also been an active participant and strong advocate for the Arts Partnership, the 18-year collaborative alliance between the Ordway, Minnesota Opera, The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and Schubert Club. He served two terms as the Partnership’s board president, and is currently treasurer, chair of the Investment Committee, and a long-term participant in the facility maintenance task force, artistic leadership group, and annual fundraising committee.
“Barry’s enduring gift to us is that Schubert Club’s future is extraordinarily bright,” said Schubert Club Board Chair Ann Juergens. “With his steady leadership, caring relationships with artists, and his passion for promoting a diverse offering of local and global musicians, Barry has enhanced Schubert Club’s worldwide reputation while deepening our engagement with the Twin Cities arts community.”
“Leading the Schubert Club has been one of the great joys of my professional life,” said Kempton. “I feel truly fortunate to have worked in partnership with such dedicated, inspiring people in the staff and on the Board of Directors. When I step down next summer, I will do so with deep gratitude for the trust, support, and kindness I’ve experienced from so many people along the way. In the meantime, however, we have a fabulous season ahead – concerts, education activities, and Museum programming galore!”
Under Kempton’s leadership, Schubert Club has:
- Grown the number of annual concert presentations to 60 over five different series.
- Launched Schubert Club Mix, a new-format concert series in nontraditional venues such as Aria, Bedlam Theater and the Parkway Theater.
- Commissioned more than 50 new works and songs – often as a co-commissioning partner.
- Redesigned the Schubert Club Music Museum in Landmark Center as both an interactive, hands-on exhibit of playable musical instruments, and a showcase for its historical keyboard instruments and manuscripts collections.
- Introduced an annual Featured Artist program, which led to special presentations such as a complete Beethoven string quartet cycle by the Danish String Quartet, a Shostakovich string quartet cycle by the Jerusalem Quartet, and unforgettable concerts by Vikingur Olafsson, Nicola Benedetti and others.
- Celebrated Schubert Club’s 130th and 140th anniversaries, raising over $2 million during the 140th season to launch a new scholarship program, Musical Promise.
- Initiated Schubert Club’s Free Tickets program for children under 18 and students of any age at all concerts and education programs.
- Established a new strategic framework that identifies Schubert Club’s role in reframing our understanding of classical music and centering a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion.
- Doubled its endowment to $26 million.
To ensure a seamless transition in leadership, the Schubert Club Board of Directors will begin a national search for the organization’s next leader.
ABOUT SCHUBERT CLUB
For more than 140 years, Schubert Club has invited the world’s great recital soloists and ensembles to the Twin Cities and has promoted the superb musical talents of our community through performances, education, and museum programs. One of the first arts organizations in the country, Schubert Club remains today one of the nation’s most vibrant, relevant, and respected music organizations.
Schubert Club’s International Artist Series has presented many of the world’s great recitalists including Jascha Heifetz, Arthur Rubinstein, Cecilia Bartoli, Isaac Stern, Beverly Sills, Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Leontyne Price, Yo-Yo Ma, and Renée Fleming to name a few. In 2014, Schubert Club introduced Schubert Club Mix, its convention-breaking performance series in nontraditional venues. Additional series include the Music in the Park Series, which presents chamber music in the St. Anthony Park neighborhood, Accordo, a string collective comprising current and former members of the Minnesota Orchestra and The Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, and a free weekly lunchtime Courtroom Concert series at the Landmark Center in downtown St. Paul featuring Minnesota-based artists and composers.
Not only a concert presenter, Schubert Club has engaged in music education programs since 1911. Schubert Club currently reaches two thousand youth annually through varied activities such as KidsJam music workshops, Project CHEER free music lessons in neighborhood locations, master classes and scholarship awards that allow students to pursue their music studies more intensively.
The recently renovated Schubert Club Music Museum, located in historic Landmark Center, holds two exciting new interactive galleries – the Music Makers Zone, where visitors can explore, discover and create music with instruments from around the globe, and Keyboard Journey Gallery, an immersive focus on the sights and sounds of Schubert Club’s keyboard collection – from a 16th century spinet to iconic 20th century electro-mechanical keyboard instruments like the Fender Rhodes piano and the Hammond organ. Composer letters from the Gilman Ordway Manuscript Collection are also on display together with a selection of historical music players that brought music into the home.
For more information visit schubert.org.
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